Call for global collaboration on occupational road risk

There is massive scope for co-ordinated global action to reduce the number of people killed and injured when they are driving for work, the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents will tell an international conference.

Roger Bibbings, the safety charity’s occupational safety adviser, will present the UK’s approach to managing occupational road risk (MORR) at the First International Conference on Road Safety at Work which starts today (February 16) and runs until Wednesday.

The conference in Washington DC, hosted by the US National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, has been called to help countries learn from each other’s experiences.

More than 3,000 people die on the world’s roads every day. A research paper produced for the conference estimates that work-related incidents account for 25 per cent of road crashes across the globe, and 50 per cent if commuting is included.

Roger Bibbings said: “Some initial work on international comparisons by RoSPA suggests that there is much scope for sharing experiences and approaches to MORR between EU Member States as well as more widely, with action taken in the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Japan to name but a few.

“Given the explosion of motorisation globally and the scale of the worldwide road casualty epidemic, the case for international co-operation in this vital area is unassailable.”

In the UK, it is estimated that between a quarter and a third of all road crashes involve a person and/or a vehicle at work at the time. This means that every week about 200 people are killed or seriously injured in “at-work” crashes.

RoSPA has led the campaign to address work-related road risk since 1996.

Roger Bibbings will encourage the adoption of a management systems approach to MORR in a conference workshop on Tuesday.

He said many businesses in the UK were already experiencing the greater benefits it could bring, in terms of reducing both injuries and the financial burden of accidents, compared to those that could be achieved through one-off interventions such as a driver training session or handbook.

But he said: “The challenge now facing the UK is how to extend the bridgehead established on this subject in major organisations to small and medium-sized enterprises, particularly those which are keen to improve their safety performance, but which lack expertise and guidance.

“On the other hand, those businesses which will not ‘see the light’ need to ‘feel the heat’ of firmer enforcement and, in this context, attention is now firmly fixed on the first cases of corporate manslaughter to be taken in the wake of the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act.”

More than 150 delegates from businesses, government agencies and non-governmental organisations from 38 different countries will attend the conference. See cdc.gov/niosh/programs/twu/global/ for more information.